Pegasus Theatre Chicago is proud to announce the cast and creative team for Dontrell, Who Kissed the Sea, July 11 - August 18, written by Nathan Alan Davis and directed by Pegasus’ Executive and Producing Director ILesa Duncan, at Chicago Dramatists, 798 N. Aberdeen. Previews are Thursday, July 11 through Saturday, July 13 at 7 p.m. The opening/press performance is Sunday, July 14 at 2:30 p.m. The performance schedule is Fridays at 7 p.m., Saturdays at 2:30 and 7 p.m. and Sundays at 2:30 p.m. Tickets are on sale now for $15 - $30 at PegasusTheatreChicago.org.
Blending poetry, humor, wordplay and ritual, Dontrell, Who Kissed the Sea is a hero’s quest to explore the journey to redeem history’s misdeeds. Eighteen-year-old Dontrell Jones the Third decides his duty and destiny is to venture into the Atlantic Ocean in search of an ancestor lost during the Middle Passage. However, his family fears losing their prized son to the waters of a mysterious and haunting past
The cast of Dontrell, Who Kissed the Sea includes Blake Dupree (Dontrell); David Goodloe (Dad); Maya Abram (Mom); Aja Singletary (Shea); Aundria TraNay (Danielle); Zay Williams (Robby) and Emma Wineman (Erika).
The production team includes ILesa Duncan (director); India Burton (associate director), Wynn Lee (scenic); Brenden Marble (lights); Eme Ospina-Lopez (projections); Chris Kriz (sound); Paloma Locsin (props); Emma Brandenburger (costumes); Tanji Harper (choreography); Maya V. Prentiss (intimacy coordinator), Faramade Oladapo (Yoruba consultant); Caitlyn Birmingham (stage manager) and Addoris Davis (production manager).
ABOUT NATHAN ALAN DAVIS, playwright
Nathan Alan Davis is a playwright from Rockford, Illinois who is now based in New York and Boston. His plays include Nat Turner in Jerusalem, Dontrell Who Kissed the Sea and The Wind and the Breeze. His work has been produced and developed by New York Theatre Workshop, McCarter Theatre, The Public Theater, Arena Stage, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Cygnet Theatre, The Lark, NNPN, The New Harmony Project and Sundance. Awards include: Whiting Award in Drama, Stavis Playwright Award, Steinberg/ATCA New Play Citation, Blue Ink Award and Lorraine Hansberry Award. Davis is a 2016 graduate of Juilliard’s Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwrights Program. He has a MFA from Indiana University and a BFA from the University of Illinois. For his body of work, Nathan has received a Windham-Campbell Prize (2021), a Steinberg Playwright Award (2020), and a Whiting Award in Drama (2018). His TV/film work includes projects for Netflix, AMC, BET, and Paramount. He is the Director of the MFA Playwriting Program at Boston University.
ABOUT ILESA DUNCAN, director
ILesa Duncan is the executive and producing artistic director at Pegasus Theatre Chicago and the artistic director and an ensemble member at Lifeline Theatre. She has directed numerous plays for Pegasus’ Young Playwrights Festival as well as Eclipsed (Jeff Nominated), Shakin’ The Mess Outta Misery (Jeff Nominated), Rutherford’s Travels (Jeff Nominated, co-adapter), The Green Book, For Her as a Piano, and Blacula: Young, Black & Undead. At Lifeline, she recently directed the Jeff-Recommended Native Son, From the Mississippi Delta, Neverwhere (Jeff Award 2018) and Blue Shadow (2010 KidSeries Premiere). A producer, director, writer, educator and theater-maker, Duncan is an avid collaborator on new work. Duncan has also worked with The Goodman, Writers Theatre, Congo Square, Rivendell Theatre Ensemble, Stage Left and Chicago Dramatists, as well as Contemporary American Theatre Company (Ohio), The Alliance Theatre (Atlanta), Arena Stage (Washington D.C.) and Lincoln Center Theater (New York). As an educator, she has led youth development and arts education programs in Chicago for more than 20 years. She has been named one of Newcity’s “Players 2024: The Fifty People Who Really Perform for Chicago” and is a past awardee of an NEA/TCG Directing fellowship and a 3 Arts Ragdale’s Fellowship. She is a member of the Lincoln Center Theatre Director’s Lab and the Chicago Director’s Lab and is an associate artist with Chicago Dramatists (where she previously served as education and community engagement director).
COMING NEXT FROM PEGASUS
The 38th Annual Young Playwrights Festival
January, 2025
Chicago Dramatists, 798 N. Aberdeen
The Young Playwrights Festival, the oldest such festival in the United States, returns in 2025 to engage and inspire high school students across Chicago by teaching them to craft one-act plays. Under the auspices of Pegasus Theatre Chicago, the winning teen playwrights’ productions are work-shopped and staged by industry professionals.
ABOUT PEGASUS THEATRE CHICAGO
Pegasus Theatre Chicago has been a mainstay in the Chicago theater community for more than four decades. Its mission is to champion new, authentic voices and produce boldly imaginative theatre primarily by and about black or other people of color. Home of the Young Playwrights Festival, the company promotes cultural equity while celebrating diversity, inclusion and first voice and is committed to initiating important conversations through the arts with strong community engagement and socially relevant programming. The Young Playwrights Festival for high school-age scribes celebrates its 37th year in 2024. Pegasus Theatre Chicago has received 77 Joseph Jefferson Awards since its inception.
Pegasus Theatre Chicago is proud to announce the cast and creative team for Dontrell, Who Kissed the Sea, July 11 - August 18, written by Nathan Alan Davis and directed by Pegasus’ Executive and Producing Director ILesa Duncan, at Chicago Dramatists, 798 N. Aberdeen. Previews are Thursday, July 11 through Saturday, July 13 at 7 p.m. The opening/press performance is Sunday, July 14 at 2:30 p.m. The performance schedule is Fridays at 7 p.m., Saturdays at 2:30 and 7 p.m. and Sundays at 2:30 p.m. Tickets are on sale now for $15 - $30 at PegasusTheatreChicago.org.
Pegasus Theatre Chicago’s production of Dontrell, Who Kiss the Sea is generously sponsored by Paul M. Angell Foundation, The David & Reva Logan Foundation, the Gaylord & Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, the Illinois Arts Council Agency and the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE). Pegasus arts education programs are supported by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Polk Bros. Foundation.
Top row: Blake Dupree (Dontrell); David Goodloe (Dad); Maya Abram (Mom); Aja Singletary (Shea)
Second row: Aundria TraNay (Danielle); Zay Williams (Robby) and Emma Wineman (Erika)